Dombrowski On Red Sox’ Deadline Plans

As the summer trade period begins to take shape, Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski discussed his team’s plans with Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald. The full interview is essential reading for Boston fans, but we’ll discuss a few key elements here.

One major topic was the team’s potential need for infield help. There have been a variety of suggestions from outside the organization, mostly focused on the struggles of third baseman Rafael Devers and the injury issues clouding the picture at second base.

Regarding the hot corner, Dombrowski says that the organization is “not looking for a third baseman.” To the contrary, he indicated, the Sox are more than content with their existing situation. “We love him,” Dombrowski said of Devers, a still-youthful player who struggled out of the gates this year but has shown more pop thus far in the month of June.

Still, Devers has come up in a variety of outlets as a speculative trade piece. Of course, there’s no indication from any reports that he has specifically been discussed in any talks to this point. And it’s even less clear that the Sox would be willing to consider dealing him. Certainly, Dombrowski indicated that’s unlikely.

Perhaps the likelier route, if the Boston organization does seek to improve in the infield, is to look for a quality veteran that can contribute at second or third — much as the team did last year. While the hope was to avoid that necessity this time around, Eduardo Nunez has not performed and Dustin Pedroia’s health is an ongoing question mark. It’s only fair to note, though, that Brock Holt has been hitting as well as ever.

For now, Dombrowski indicated, the team is planning to wait and see how things shake out with Pedroia. There’s still no clear expectation for when he’ll be ready to return, but certainly the Sox will want to give him every chance to do so before settling on an approach. Likewise, Dombrowski notes that there are a few potential “internal fixes” to any pitching needs currently residing on the DL.

The general viewpoint that Dombrowski expressed was one in which there’s still quite a lot to take in and assess. That’s a reflexive position to take for a MLB executive, perhaps, though it’s also a valid one in this case. As he notes, the club is playing quite well, and its problem areas may look somewhat different in five weeks than they do today.

All that being said, there’s a fascinating dynamic lurking in the background, as Evan Drellich of NBC Sports Boston writes. Contending teams are always looking to get better at the deadline, but the current AL East alignment could portend a veritable arms race between the Sox and rival Yankees. Taking the division is not only a prize in and of itself, but represents a major advantage in the postseason due to the Wild Card play-in format.

So, can the Boston organization keep pace with their familiar foes from New York, not only in the standings but in the deadline acquisition game? That remains to be seen, but Dombrowski says there’s little reason to fear that his club’s relatively under-stocked farm system will prove a hindrance to mid-season trades. While he tells Mastrodonato that he’s not yet committed to making “big additions,” Dombrowski adds that he has “no question that if we want to make a move, we have the type of players that can help us do that.”

…you really can’t be serious about trading Swihart for such a minimal return..…….

(BTW, that’s sarcasm)….the only way they can get help. considering the drained farm system, is to eat a big contract coming back….Realmuto and Chen, maybe……the system probably ranks #30…..no beef, they graduated a lot of talent, and you have to get a Sale when he’s out there…..but the farm needs a drastic rebuild…..

Has to be one of the most ridiculous proposals I’ve ever heard. Chavis was a nobody, has a breakout year out of no where, then gets popped for peds. Groome has issues off the field and is in the middle of tj rehab. Then Travis and Swihart have been in the organization for so long without cracking the mold, are they even considered prospects anymore? What would the Mets be expecting to get in this deal?

Trader Dave is in a casino without any real chips. He drained their farm system and Pawtucket is pathetic.

So his comments are delusional. Unless another GM is plain DUMB, he has no shot at decent upgrades.

He needs relief pitchers and has holes in the lineup. That’s why good pitching has made their lineup impotent recently.

The Sox had one of the easiest schedules the first month; The Yankees had one of the most difficult.
Payback is coming in September.

Next weekend they will be humbled in the Bronx. I’m hoping that David “I’m not pitching in the ASG” Price doesn’t skip out on his team like an earlier series. Hope that he starts an inning that lasts 40 minutes.

“Trader Dave” is in a casino without chips, sure, but he DOES have a giant bank account (literally and figuratively). He USED the farm system to make a terrific team. Which is the goal of a farm system.

He didn’t make any delusional comments. There are always pieces (often approaching FA) available, and every farm system has depth prospects for such deals. And he *could* make a big deal, but it would be costly and not necessary.

Boston doesn’t “need” anything, because perfect teams don’t exist and so trying to “fix” a roster to be flawless is a fantasy. You make the best team possible.

The Yankees played a ton of home games early in the season. The notion of “easy” and “difficult” schedules in MLB is entirely subjective. In reality, it’s baseball, meaning that the season is a marathon, so it’s much more about your own quality of play than “strength of schedule” when it comes to winning and losing.

Relief isn’t a problem. Every team has an issue now and then late in games and the entire relief corps has been tight over the course of the season.

my suggestion? Cease with the Poyner/Scott trials for good and begin trying out Buttrey and Brasier from the Pawsox. Buttrey sits upper 90’s, touches 100mph and has been unhittable this season and is already on the 40 man roster while Brasier is a veteran who has been closing there and has done a fine job. let one of those go middle relief and give hembree/Workman more close games to work in.

Cora is begining to resemble Farrell in his BP usage.. Afraid to use righties vs lefties and throwing ineffective ppl like Poyner/Johnson out there far too often when game is close.

Going into the playoffs, are you really confident with Barnes and Kelly facing the Yankees, Astros, or Mariners lineup every game? Sure, they’re alright right now in the regular season, but they’ll be exposed if those are their bridge guys in a postseason series

Barnes no way and Kelly is still a question mark. Both simply walk too many hitters to leave you feeling comfortable. They together remind me of Stanhouse in the 70s with the O’s who Earl Weaver knicknamed two-pack because of all the nervous smoking Weaver would do (or want to do) in the dugout.

I don’t really have a problem with it, at least unless one of the 2 of Barnes/Kelly really begins to get shaky. neither has been that bad to me and really.. How was that late inning acquisition last season for the pen? The year before? (Abad), or just for giggles.. How about 2007 (eric gag-me)?

Going out and getting that guy one thinks they “need” doesn’t always fix an issue and lets not forget to reflect on the cost sometimes either.. Like another reliever down the stretch some fans were screaming for back in ’90 that ended up being Larry Anderson which ended up costing future HOF’er jeff Bagwell..

I’ve been watching boston trade AS, yes even HOF prospects for 50y and don’t take lightly to deals for positions they don’t need myself and think this, for right now is one.

Sox have one of the most depleted farm systems in baseball. No shot at any relevant acquisitions. As far as internal candidates DD must be referring to Adam Lind (sarcasm)….. best case scenario is Thornburg steps in and produces and if Pomeranz gets healthy goes to the bullpen and succeeds

I think treinen is quite a bit more valuable than kela or Greene. Idk what the interest level is in two guys whose values have plummeted. The A’s are looking for highest upside in trades so if they could manage to swing groome and Chavis for treinen they’d probably be inclined to take it. Maybe send Jed Lowrie back to Boston while you’re at it.

Once again DD buries his head in the sand at the trade deadline. I’m shocked. (sarcasm) Couldn’t pull the trigger on Verlander last year or JD and now he’s declared his love for our greatest disappointment, no not Bradley, Devers. Devers 15th error tonight puts him 13 ahead of the best 3B in the American League. The closest competitors to his futility are a couple of guys at 11 errors. If he was batting .300 and had 20 HRs, I could live with his crap defense but that’s not the case. He belongs in the minors or on another team. For those who keep talking about him improving you need to check the numbers, it’s simply not true. His hitting isn’t improving and his fielding is not improving as so many seem to believe. Would it surprise you to know that Bogaerts has 33 more chances and has 10 less errors. That’s how a Red Sox player should field. Our team has 39 and Devers has 15 and Bogaerts is next highest at 5 then it drops to 3. So don’t tell me Devers is getting better. He’s the worst in the American League. And if that’s not enough he’s hitting .239 with a team leading 77 strikeouts. Of course DD I can see why you love him.(sarcasm). I think we would have been better off with Hanley playing 3B, that’s how bad Devers is!!.

I’m not shocked at DD’s mis-assessment of his team. (sarcasm) He’s known for it. He’s the guy that gets hit by a tidal wave because his back is to the water. The Red Spx desperately need an 8th inning guy who is currently a closer. Greene, Soria, Treinen and host of others are out there. We also need someone who can field at 3B and we don’t need a centerfielder who is hitting .181. Someone suggested a 2B but we don’t need a 2B as badly as we need a 3B and Bradley on the bench or another team. We could use a quality pitcher like DeGrom but he is an exception like Sale. We don’t need a Syndergaard who gets hurt all the time or another middle tier pitcher. We need a guy at least as good as Price and there aren’t many available so going hard after DeGrom makes sense.

Bottom-line, if DD assesses that we don’t need anything like last year our season will end sooner than last year. We’ll play a one game playoff against Seattle and Paxton will beat Sale 1-0 on an error by Devers and Cora will set his line-up like tonight with 3 left-handed hitters batting in a row so the other team can bring in a left just once. And he’ll not bat his best two hitters in the first inning, he’ll leave JD in the 4 hole so he might get one less at bat than Bogaerts. Makes sense, JD is hitting .around .315 and Bogaerts is about 30 points less with 10 less homers so naturally you wouldn’t want to make sure that JD gets more at bats than Bogey.(sarcasm) If nothing else could DD please hire a baseball expert to teach Cora how to set a line-up and how to use his available relievers. Heck that might save us a dozen wins over the second half of the season!!

bruinfan94 – yes I am. The playoff system creates the doom and gloom. We got knocked out last year by a Verlander led team but by winning the division at least we had a decent shot at winning. If we don’t win our division, we will either face Seattle and Paxton or Verlander and Houston for one game. We will throw our best pitcher Sale and he doesn’t get run support. It will be allot harder to win that one game than it was to win the series against Houston last year. Also, we have a great record in our division because we have played TB, BAL and TOR allot more than the Yankees. In the second half of the season they will play those three bad teams many more times than us. Our record is a reflection of us playing so many games in the division and we aren’t ahead right now. So we have to improve our record in the second half against better teams.

That’s why i am doom and gloom or as I would say “needing changes urgently”. The longer we wait the farther we should fall behind the less likely we win the division the less likely we get past the first game of the playoffs. I think DD should feel the urgency and all I’m doing is trying to point it out in case anybody from the team reads these logs. His press conference suggested that he doesn’t see the urgency.

As of the trade deadline last year, Verlander had a 4.29 ERA, coming off of some other up-and-down seasons, all at age 34 and with a huge contract. He wasn’t exactly the apple of everyone’s eye, though he was a worthwhile gamble for someone looking for a veteran horse with the potential to carry a team for a playoff run (i.e. not Boston, which had Sale).

You are right that our strength of schedule is much tougher than the Yankee schedule but we have things to look forward to as well. Stanton hasn’t got hurt yet, he’s an injury waiting to happen. You don’t have Girardi as a manager to calm the nerves and say the right things when things get tough you’ve got an inexperienced manager who won’t provide the needed support to pull you through rough times. You have a pitching staff that has to hope people swing at balls out of the strike zone (except Severino, he’s legit). If teams stop swinging at pitches out of the zone, the pitching will suffer during the second half. So don’t pump your chest yet. You have plenty that can go wrong and no manager who is a miracle worker like Girardi. He took crap teams and made them contenders, I’m not seeing Mr. TV as that type of manager. He’s another Cora, a best friend of the player without the common sense to set a line-up, make pitching changes when needed and effectively select the right relievers in key situations. When Betance has another meltdown, we’ll see how well Mr. TV handles the pressure.

The Yanks have the scheduling edge but you guys are known for your injuries and they are over-due right now, especially Stanton.(the Bob Horner of this generation). A healthy team will make our climb very difficult but it’s possible if DD can do the unexpected and pick up two key positions to right the ship.

Mikeyank55 – I’m ok with pro-yankee responses but please try to at least understand the original content before you response and then try to write something that at least talks to the same subject!!

Maybe you don’t remember Bob Horner. He was a great player who was constantly hurt. Probably would have been a hall of famer if he could have stayed healthy. The Stanton comparison had nothing to do with homers or the pace of homers or anything related to stats except number of games played each year.

A Yankee fan thumping their chest about a team that has won nothing recently is fairly typical of these websites. Your current line-up is probably the best that has never won anything!! There you go a Red Sox fan providing you with a compliment.

Unless you can pick up 2 or 3 quality starting pitchers you’ll never get by Houston. You didn’t win the World Series last year and you lost to the same team we lost to so the fact that we beat you during the regular season simply prolonged your run at a title because you missed Houston in the first round. My guess is that Cleveland will play the winner in the East and Houston will play the wildcard winner so once again you could prolong your agony if you win the division. If you get by Cleveland you’ll get beat by Houston a second straight year. If we win the wildcard, it’s likely we’ll lose to Houston a second straight year. I see no reason for either team to be thumping their chests right now. Houston should be! Their GM has done an incredible job.

This year, at the trade deadline, I highly doubt DD will sit on his hands, or at least, he better not. If he doesn’t add at least a piece or two to this team, then he’s going to get Boston fans calling for his head, I’m sure…

I don’t know who exactly DD is willing to part with from their 40 man, but they don’t really have a lot of bigtime assets, on the farm, in order to acquire a top flight starting pitcher. So, unless DD is willing to package together Devers, Chavis, Groome, JBJ, Houck and/or Mada, or some similarly talented combination of assets, I doubt they even come close to sniffing Jacob DeGrom..

However, if DD decides to get creative, he could trade JBJ and/or Sam Travis for a couple of talented prospects, and then package them together to sweeten a DeGrom offer..That’s the only way I could see them adding DeGrom..

Anyways, DD does have options and capital at his disposal in order to make this team even better. So, if he decides to stand pat, then I’m pretty sure Boston fans are going to call for DD’s head!! lol

Anyways, when it is all said and done, I believe DD is going to end up trading for one of the Padres relievers, NOT NAMED HAND, and then depending on the health of Pedroia, that’ll depend on whether or not they add another infielder..

HOWEVER, if Boston doesn’t want Brock Holt, please send him to the Braves!! I love me some Brock Holt, and have been hoping that Boston would trade him away for about 3 seasons now…lol

Anyways, good luck Boston fans, it is going to be one heck of a race between you guys and the Yanks..Definitely fun for all baseball fans, and even better for the game in general..

JBJ and Sam Travis and a couple of some unknown prospects won’t get you close to DeGrom…..get real
JBJ has been trade bait for the last couple of years and is a defensive first outfielder…something the Mets can pick up on their own if they actually felt the need.
Sam Travis is an unknown.

And the Statcast Catch Probability on BaseballSavant list JBJ as making 1 of 12 five star catches, 5 of 10 four star catches, 3 of 4 three star catches. There are a number of other outfielders with better ratings. In Outs Above Average, they have him listed 27th.

In other words, Bradley’s reputation as a fielder may be pumped up by local media and fans. Sure, he has made some great catches but apparently there are players we don’t see every day who are even better.

And no one ever mentions his erratic arm, like off-line, missing the cut-off man.

I’m sorry, but that is a turd assessment. Bradley’s defense reputation isn’t “pumped up”, but stems from YEARS of scouting and metric agreement about his excellence. Does that mean he hasn’t been the same this year? Nope! But that doesn’t mean his former defensive superlative play was a mirage.

Also, his arm isn’t just “erratic”, it’s very strong for the position but his accuracy comes and goes. Calling it erratic makes it sound like a complete negative, whereas it will keep some runners from even attempting an extra base (though he could stand to be more accurate).

Mike Lowell, who worked with Devers in Spring Training, was asked about Devers struggles recently. His response (paraphrasing here) was to remind people that when he was 21, he sucked at defense, but was in A ball so nobody noticed. Give the kid some time.

DD made moves last year, and didn’t make any unnecessary moves. That isn’t “burying your head in the sand”.

Also, metrics (and the eye test) clearly show that Devers has SLIGHTLY below average defense this year, not “garbage” defense. He makes some impressive plays but flubs some easy ones, hence the errors…you know, like hundreds of young players have before him. More important is that he has demonstrated the tools to succeed at the position, so he appears to have a future there.

But then again, you don’t strike me as the type who does research and look into facts…

Your own folks have said over and over again that he’s really a first baseman/DH in the making because of his body and lack of agility at third which is why your “has the tools to succeed is a homer comment”.
Maybe you should look into the facts a little closer also.
After 500 or so at bats everyone needs to give him a little bit of a break as maybe, he’s just a good ballplayer rather than a Boston Superstar..

What “own folks”. There are Boston and league-wide scouting assessments about him. His arm is pretty good, and there are questions about his BODY TYPE allowing him to KEEP agility if he puts on more good/bad weight.

Don’t you dare criticize someone when you’re the one pulling the lies out of his rear. The facts are that Devers has played decent (but below average) defense, with his primary weakness coming from flubbed plays. Those can be infuriating because they stand out, but only IGNORANT fans get caught up with those while not seeing the quality plays.

He has almost countered his flubs with the quality of his play on tougher contact. So he has shown the range and arm to succeed on tough plays, which are the “tools” I was talking about. You can’t create the ability to make a tough play out of thin air, but you CAN teach someone to avoid flubs.

That doesn’t mean he will stick at the position, because he could POTENTIALLY lose agility as he ages. But there was a similar concern with Bogaerts sticking at SS when he was a prospect, and it turns out he has manged to deservedly stick at that position himself. I bet you were the sort to mock people as “homers” who said “he has shown the tools to succeed at the position” with him too (though, to be frank, he has limited tools at the position but has done a good job polishing his skills).

redsoxu571 – wow I don’t strike you as a guy that researches things? So all that stats provided … mean nothing. Maybe you were looking in the mirror when you made that comment. You tossed out ‘your opinion’ and then accused my facts of not being filled with research.

THE WORST 3B in the AMERICAN LEAGUE. That’s a fact that was researched to contradict your opinion that he is slightly below average despite the next closest 3B having 11 errors to his 15. Over a full season thats roughtly 10 errors more than the second worst 3B. If that is SLIGHTLY below average then help me understand what bad would be!! I think bad is being the WORST in baseball but you are right, I didn’t research that.

Hey 17….no worries with u571…he’s a frustrated lawyer wannabe. Always arguing his opinion and stating it like it is facts rather than look at reality. He’s in it for the argument and his commentary is as accurate as a Red Sox injury report by Trader Dave, which is always filled with wishful imagination.

If Rafael Devers was on the Sox A-ball team in Salem, he would be the youngest position player on the roster. The Sox expect growing pains here. The fans are the ones who don’t and can’t live with them.

Notin – I agree with you. His age suggests he should be at a lover level and that’s what I’m advocating. Move him to AAA and have a coach ride him about pitch selection and his approach with 2 strikes to decrease his strikeout totals. Then, have a 1B coach work with him to see if it’s possible to convert him so he doesn’t have to be a DH. Frankly, a position with less demand for mobility would be ideal but I fear his ability to scoop, stretch and get to the base quickly.might not be a good fit either. If he can return to hitting like last year I’m sure the Red Sox could shuffle their line-up to allow him to DH.

We should expect less of him as a 21 year old BUT we didn’t decide he was ready for the MLB, management did. I take no issue with his mistakes when they happen the first time but I do take issue with them repeating. He has thrown to the wrong base several times this year. His base running has been a problem like several other players and obviously his pitch selection is very bad. To me, those are signs that he is over his head and not swimming. AAA is there to help with these types of situations. We declared Wil Middlebrooks our 3B of the future several years ago and then the next year he proved us wrong. Devers is on a similar track except he’s a worse fielder and not hitting. Growing pains versus not what we thought he was are two things that people can see differently. Sometimes you can be hopeful and be right and sometimes the hopeful are wrong. If you believe in Devers, make his path easier and keep his confidence up by sending him down to a level where he can feel good about himself and learn more about how to play the game.

Soto is up with the Nationals and he shows far more poise and comprehension of the game. He’s younger than Devers. If we insist on pointing out his age then lets compare him to other younger players succeeding in the bigs. That will tell you whether he is at the right level..

Like last year. Great strategy. It turned out so well last year. Were you feeling satisfied as a Red Sox fan when you watched him pass on JD and Verlander and you saw JD crush the ball for Arizona and Verlander single=handedly drive Houston to the promised land? I know I wasn’t..

Your comment that he’s simply downplaying his situation worked last year, fool me twice? No way. The genius turned out to be the fool. He’s not a card player, the Astros GM is. DD is a splash maker after someone else tests how deep the water is. Timing is a big part of winning and he’s had two organizations that supported him and got very little in return except teams that made it to the playoffs. Not winners. Don’t confuse DD with Theo.

Bruinsfan94 – Not in play last year? Why not? They were in play for Arizona and Houston. All we had to do was make an offer Detroit liked more than Houston’s or Arizona’s. We could have had one or both. DD chose not to get them and they were huge assets acquired at the deadline for both teams. I’m worried he’s going to do it again.

Do you follow any details about how things go down, or remember them? Verlander and his contract were passed on by every club so he made it through waivers. Nobody, including the Astros thought he was worth his salary at the time. Obviously, everyone was wrong about that, but it was certainly reasonable given his last few years of health and performance and his age.

Then teams got to negotiate to get the Tigers to eat money in exchange for prospects. Now you try to put the pieces together — Sox probably didn’t have the prospects to compete because DD had grabbed Sale a few months earlier for Moncada, Kopeck +. You rather have 1 year plus 1 month of Verlander or 3 years of Sale? Sox couldn’t take the whole Verlander contract to lower the prospect cost because they were just a hair under the line for reseting their luxury tax payment, which let them blow past the limit this year to get JDM and help them when it’s time to start paying to extend all the young stars. Would you rather have the year plus of Verlander or the long term contract for JDM/easier time dealing with other financial needs?

I’m sure you’d make a great GM, smarter than everyone and with the best team if you were given an unlimited supply of premium prospects to trade and a billion dollar payroll to hand out. Not the way the system works, so maybe be a little more thoughtful about bashing other people.

Bert17 – Are you a GM? You speak as if you have experience at being a GM but allot of what you said was your opinion and guessing. The Red Sox are a program that runs all year and at specific points in time the financial situation can be better than other times. The GM manages the financials to keep the team where the owners want it and provide the best possible team for the fans. DD invested wisely in Sale who was under=priced. He has to deal with Price’s over-priced contract and he has some bad baggage with past players. On the bright side, he has two inexpensive catchers, an inexpensive gold glove 1B, two stud young outfielders who are at discounted prices right now, a star shortstop at a discount and a very inexpensive 3B who hit great last year but regressed and is the worst 3B in baseball statistically on defense. He has a cheap CF who can’t hit and a stud closer who is expensive but worth it.

So last year Verlander and JD are available and DD has given up most of his farm studs in trades so his cupboard is depleted. What should he do at the deadline? I don’t believe the choice was 1 month of Verlander or 3 years of Sale. Sale had already happened and remember this was a point in time that was critical to winning a world series. Verlander was not just a ho-hum pitcher he was elite despite being older. JD had an excellent track record over the previous years so he too was elite. We didn’t have a Papi and needed one. JD was there for the taking and we passed. Porcello wasn’t having a Cy Young type year so Verlander would have been a huge upgrade at the #2 spot. We passed on that too. Maybe we didn’t have enough depth in our minors to beat out Houston or Arizona but from press conferences last year there was no slight suggestion that we tried. If we had tried and lost out, I believe the press would have got wind of it but they didn’t. So, like you, I have no idea if he put in any effort to close either deal but based on Red Sox nation being upset that he depleted our minors he probably worried about public opinion if he further depleted our minors. What Red Sox nation needs to understand is that Sale is worth EVERY penny (player) he spent getting him. JD is also worth EVERY penny we spent on him. It is the GM’s responsibility to find players and procure the ones that provide more value than price. Verlander was providing more value than price and still is. He would have been a perfect pick-up, just like DeGrom is now.

What about the luxury tax you ask? It’s the GM’s job to provide resources with the timing of those assets being critical. In the off-season DD will have 6 months to re-balance his worksheet and trade players worth less than their value to lower overall costs. The only thing he can’t control are the bad contracts already existing like Panda’s. He is paid very big bucks to provide “timely” resources to the manager. In my opinion, he’s made three excellent acquisitions in Pomerantz, Sale and JD. Unfortunately, the timing of his big scores haven’t coincided with what the manager needed. We needed either JD or Verlander last year and neither happened. We almost didn’t get JD this year, I am very thankful he finally pulled the trigger.

So, if we plan on competing for the division title this year, we need a fix at 3B and we need a set-up man for Kimbrel and ideally we need to sit Bradley and use someone in the OF who won’t hurt us playing left field with Benny in CF and Betts in RF. Holt is a .300 hitter who does an average job so we get the extra hits and lose a little on defense. If we keep Devers then NOBODY should ever complain about JD’s defense because he isn’t the worst OF in the American League and the number of plays in left field are far less than 3B. If people love Devers so much, then send him to the minors until he learns to lay off bad pitches, stops trying to homer on every swing and finds a position where he can be at least ‘average’ not the worst in baseball..

I was thoughtful about my comments that you say bash DD. I was pointing out where DD has failed Red Sox nation. For me his failure is in the timing of his moves. We urgently need help now and I’m calling out for him to take action. I want to win the division not play a one game playoff with Seattle or Houston. My suggestions are my attempt to make that happen. I guess the way I distinguish constructive criticism and bashing is by the content of the comments. Do they simply say he’s wrong or do they provide an alternative for what he could have done or should do. I wasn’t bashing DD I was trying to provide constructive criticism to inspire him to not make the same mistake again this year.

Considering that both have similar fielding ratings this year and similar hitting profiles this season (low OBP, quality power, with “Villy” being somewhat better) – and Devers is SIX years younger – no, not really.

Disgusting! That is what this is. Baserunning idiocy, bullpen choice’s by Alex, crap…just crap. Need to trade a catcher, Nunez, get a 2b or give Holt the dam job, relief pitcher, and yes 3B… Muchado and Britton solves a lot

The Red Sox need to face facts, and realize they need a second baseman. Not just for this year, either.

Scooter Gennett or Schoop should be attainable, for the couple of legit prospects they have left in the system. So DD should just go ahead and deplete a once great farm system completely. No point in holding back at this point, they’re going to have to do a full rebuild anyway, in a few years.

It’s not gonna be an on the fly rebuild, like the Yankees had, either. Dombrowski doesn’t have the guts to trade his big names while he still can, he’s gonna sail this ship right into last place, before he (or his successor, if he fails to win anything in the next two years) has to rebuild the painful way.

I don’t think it’ll happen in Boston, but DD does have a good track record trading guys off at the deadline too. Right before he left Detroit, when Illitch finally admitted the run was over, DD moved Price and Cespedes for Norris and Fulmer, who were each top tier starting prospects.

I don’t like how the extent to which he empties a farm system, but if you really look at his full ledger of transactions, he’s done a pretty decent job of picking the right guys to give up vs who to keep. Not many of the guys he’s moved over the many, many years he’s been doing this have panned out (yet) and he’s recalled in a lot of stars in the process.

I hated the Kimbrel trade at the time, but Margot was the best player he gave up and he hasn’t been very good. I hated the Pomeranz trade and, so far that looks reasonable too. He got Miguel Cabrera for an elite starting pitching prospect who was so bad the Mariners basically gave him away to the Red Sox for a non-prospect reliever (Sox turned him into Andrew Miller, Uber-reliever) and elite outfield prospect who turned out to be a replacement level journeyman (Cam Maybin).

He’s not my favorite GM, but guy seems to know what he’s doing and he wins a lot more often than he loses when he gambles. Granted, having his one big loss – Shaw and Dubon for Thornburgh – back would solve a lot of the Sox problems right now, but would having those two guys matter if the team didn’t have Sale and Kimbrel? Gotta take the bad with the good.

I just went to the Herald and read the original story and I can’t believe how a utility player like Nunez gets trashed for not playing way over his head like last year but JBJ is ok because he hasn’t gone on his patented hitting streak yet. Seriously? Since the beginning of 2017 there have been 9 months of baseball played and JBJ has hit over .255 one time out of nine and that was last June when he must of had one of those “patented’ hitting streaks. I guess I don’t understand what patented means because I thought that would suggest a regular occurrence. JBJ hit over .255 4 of 6 months in 2016 when he hit .267 for the season. That was the only season of his six years in the MLB that he exceeded .250 while 3 of the seasons he hit under .200. I’m really not seeing a patented hitting streak in his future. Heck, I have 38 less hits than him and I’ve batted 200+ less times than him!!

Clearly Devers and Bradley have management support despite their lack of production. And that translates to media support. Next time the media needs to take it easy on Nunez, he played over his head last year and it helped us. He wasn’t hyped going in like Devers, he just got hot and made the pain of not having Pedroia a little easier to tolerate. He’s batting higher than Devers but less than Hanley! That shows you how much decisions by management relate to performance!. Politics, public perception and contracts are what drive the decisions, especially on teams that aren’t playing in the world series.

JBJ is averaging slightly over 2 chances per game and only has 2 errors for the season and 3 assists. Impressive numbers. He has 38 hits in 211 at bats and 62 total bases. So, if we compare his defense to Benintendi who would replace him we see that he has very similar numbers on defense.with 2 chances per game and 3 errors so 1 error more for every 120+ chances. Benintendi has a good and accurate arm leading to 6 assists versus 3 by Bradley. So is the step down huge? No, not on defense.

Benintendi has 79 hits (more than double Bradley’s total) in 271 at bats (60 more at bats). If we had Martinez in the OF as a worse case scenario then we would eliminate a .181 hitter and replace them with a .293 hitter like Holt assuming Devers goes to DH to prevent errors and Holt plays 3B. That would mean 1/2 a hit per game more so 35 over 70 games. If we had 35 more hits right now based on our current hit to run average we’d have 20 more runs. How many more games could we have won with 20 more runs? And don’t even try to suggest that JBJ has saved that many runs thus far this season. He is a HUGE liability just like Devers.
We need to fix two positions as soon as possible. We need the 8th inning RP in addition to finding a new 3B. I think we should look for a good defender who can hit for average or is an RBI guy to replace Devers and we need to look at teams out of it just like we need to look at them for 8th inning guys. So here are a few suggestions: Suarez and Iglesia, Chapman and Treinen, Spangenberg and Yates, Candalario and Greene or Y Sanchez and Soria. Soria has some nice experience. Each combo will vary in price and I think we have the resources to trade to make it happen.

If we can fix 3B and the 8th inning then we can use JBJ late in games or trade him. We can move Devers to DH and have one more bat in the line-up that can hit over .250 or we can trade him. If we trade both to go after DeGrom and use others to get the 3B/RP combo then life would be grand and we’d probably be playing in the World Series!

Ok, the odds of it happening are near zero but if DD wanted to, he could make these moves or similar moves to address our glaring weaknesses. Let’s hope he snaps out of his denial and at least tries this year to fix our issues.

Buddy you aren’t getting Matt chapman. There’s a wide variance in the level of players you suggest here. Spangenberg and Yates or Soria and Sanchez are the only ones you can acquire but if you think spangenberg or Sanchez is an improvement at third. I’d have to disagree. It’s just funny to see you put Suarez and Iglesias and Chapman and treinen in with those 2.

jbigz12 = I stated each pair varied in price. They were all included because they are all on teams that aren’t competing for the playoffs. That’s what they have in common I completely agree with you on their price differentials. I’m probably not as high on Treinen as many are but Chapman is a guy I know well and I have followed him for years. He was a stud in HS and often compared to his friend Arenado and the comments were they are both stud defenders with big power and Nolan’s got Chapman from a batting average standpoint. He should hit 50 points higher. Over five years later I still believe that to be an accurate assessment.

I’m curious why Spangenberg or Sanchez wouldn’t be an improvement? They both are far better fielders according to the numbers and they both are hitting far better for average. Why would they be a step down from Devers? He has the worst fielding stats in the American League and it’s not close!

Brock holt would be an improvement over Devers if you think his current production is what he is going to be this year. Moose makes more sense for Boston if they want to upgrade that position. He’s affordable and won’t cost much at all in terms of a prospect. Spangenberg has a .267 OBP, he’s essentially a utility man at best. Not sure why you’d think he’s an upgrade. Yolmer Sanchez might be a decent upgrade for now but him and Soria would be a very uninspiring package to bolster your roster with. And again you have Brock holt if Devers is truly that bad.

Have been liking your comments but you completely glossed over the defensive downgrade in the outfield going from jbj to jdm, why not analyse how many added hits and therefor runs that would lead to for the other team.

JBigz12 – I agree with your choice of Moose. I’m not as down on Spangenberg but I don’t think he is a top option. Sanchez seems to keep getting better each year and as experienced as Soria is for some reason he scares me compared to others.

Cxcx = I apologize for not including the OF downgrade but for me it would be insignificant compared to Devers. Dever’s 15 errors compared to the top fielder at 3B having 2 shows the volume of upside we could get with another 3B. JD’s worst year he had 6 errors, nine less than Dever’s total right now and that was in a comparable number of chances. Left field seems to get roughly 40% as many chances as 3B (that’s not from statcast or fangraphs so it’s not precise just an observation looking at the Red Sox!) so if JD was as bad as Devers the number of errors would be 40% of Devers. That’s why JD can’t possibly hurt the defense as much as Devers. Volume and current field percentage drive the huge difference..

For me, having great defense at SS and 3B is critical. All other positions are important but only 1B to me compares because a good 1B like Moreland can make an good SS look excellent and an excellent SS look great. We have Bogaerts who is near the top of the heap defensively and we have Devers who is at the bottom of the heap by a wide margin. (15 to 11) With the volume of chances for a 3B we need somebody more like Bogaerts at 3B rather than Devers. If you believe Devers is having a sophomore slump hitting, I can buy into that in hopes he will improve next year so maybe we simply teach him 1B or he becomes the latest young slugger who has to be a DH.

Several years ago there was a star young slugger with the Yankees named Jesus Montero. He was a can’t miss guy with similar catching skills to Sanchez. After struggling with balls in the dirt and other issues he was forced to become a DH. The Yanks dumped him to Seattle for Pineda and I haven’t heard his name mentioned much since. He was a bigger name than Devers at the time and he simply couldn’t field. It happens. I hope someone can take Devers and turn him into an acceptable fielder. Then, if he is in fact having a sophomore slump and bounces back next year he’ll have a place to play without hurting the team.

I’ve gotten allot of backlash on criticizing Dever’s defense but for me based on his current rate, 50 errors in 162 games is bad. I think it’s great that Fangraphs says 50 errors is middle of the pack but if the next closest guy is at 40 errors I still think he’s the worst in baseball and unacceptable for a contender.

Devers is projected to be a 1B at some time in the near future. Chavis is soon to be released from his suspension. Dalbec is leading Sox milb in Home Runs; both kids with power and both 3 B’s.
Don’t know about their fielding. Dalbec is more advanced than others in the system having been a college player when drafted. Like to see him @ AA Portland soon.
It would seem Devers would be a BB trade target; young, cheap with potential. Lowrie and a reliever for Devers.
Or Devers, Barnes and Vazquez for Realmuto and a reliever.

What sense does that make for the marlins? They’re about 100 years from being decent and you want to send them a catcher who can’t hit and a reliever who has 100x more value in Boston than he does on a bad Miami team. All for the pleasure of acquiring Rafael Devers. Probably not.

Devers is “projected to be a first baseman” in the same way that Bogaerts was “projected to be a third baseman”, in that Bogaerts was working at SS and improving, but there was UNCERTAINTY whether or not his body growth would require a move off of SS. Of course, that hasn’t happened, as he’s consistently been a decent SS (and a decent SS has good fielding value given the position).

In other words, Bogaerts was never PROJECTED to go to 3B, just as Devers isn’t PROJECTED to go to 1B. There is the POTENTIAL that Devers won’t be able to stick at 3B, but it’s largely a coin flip at this point. A projection implies an expectation, whereas in truth it’s a possibility, not an expectation.

Boston is 49-26…which isn’t bad. Yes, they could use some upgrades, but is it really wise to enter into a bidding war with the Yankees just because you think it might help them edge out NY for the Division? I’m a Yankees fan, and I don’t see emptying a farm to gain a modest one season advantage as a smart strategy. Both teams have the records they do in part because of the development of younger talent.

Boston’s system isn’t good right now. Are Michael Chavis and Jay Groome good enough prospects to hold off an eventual rebuild? When you have a window of opportunity you need to take it. Can’t prospect covet and miss out on that one missing piece. It’s a tough balance.

With our best players being born after 88 worst case and most after 92 our only “older” players are JD at 31, Price at 33 and Wright at 34.
There is no reason to think there is a rebuild in the next five years!!
Our minors aren’t loaded because we used them on a few very key players which is why we have the minors, to either build within or build through trades when the internal answers don’t fit. Our lower minors is in great shape. They aren’t well know yet but in two years I don’t think folks will think our cupboards are bare like now. An excellent GM for another team would look at our unproven guys and deal expendables like closers on non-competing teams to us for the upside potential of some our guys. Even if we try to get DeGrom, we still have the depth to give away MLB, AAA, AA and A talent that has excellent potential. If any of our players have a big year in A ball, they will rocket into the spotlight like Devers. Many of those players regress but for a year we have a stud prospect. Let’s hope that happens so DD has more to work with in cleaning up our roster for 2019. Folks don’t get this but having a young team with a weak upper level prospect pool but a deep lower level prospect pool isn’t a bad thing. Over-crowding can become a big problem. Spreading out the timing of young resources joining the bigs is an important part of planning your farm system. It doesn’t need to be loaded all the time! The development of young players should be cyclical like a business cycle. If you are fortunate to hit on several classes in a row you can jump from an average team to an excellent team like Houston and the Cubs. Sometimes you just need get lucky and have a 6’8″ guy who can’t make contact figure it out and suddenly turn into king kong.

Boston is a market that rarely has to rebuild. You spend 250 million on players because well, you can afford
to. The prospects aren’t there for degrom, they just aren’t that’s a fact. MLB, AAA team, rookie ball team it does not matter they aren’t there. You don’t need to have a loaded minor league system all the time, I perfectly understand that. Look at the cubs right now. They have nothing at all in the upper minors but are flush with young talent. But, you do have a window. Sale, Bogey, and Kimbrel are all FA’s in the next 2 years. Could you sign 2/3 back, sure. But that’s anyone’s guess whether that will happen. You take sale off the Sox and I’m not scared of your rotation at all. I’d want to capitalize on my opportunity while he’s still in town and Kimbrel is slamming the door shut. You take that off of your roster and you look a whole lot worse and that’s not unrealistic scenario within the next 2 years.

This team is built to win now. When I say “rebuild” it isn’t a full tear down with a market like Boston. They can still be good post sale and Kimbrel but think about it. In two years you have a 33 year old JDM, maybe Chris sale and maybe Craig Kimbrel. David price has already shown he’s not the same guy. None of those guys are 25 anymore. They have lots of wear on them. Bogey may be gone, there’s no in house replacement for him right now. Betts and benintendi will still be there and entering their primes and there is a chance that the aforementioned are still highly productive. And like I said, they can spend. But, I’d argue that the odds are much better right now than 2 years from now.

Boston Red Sox are committed to winning and have proved they are prepared to spend whatever is necessary to win. They need not to rebuild. They also have a solid nucleus of young talent as KD17 alluded to. They are all in, and I’m sure Red Sox fans appreciate that.

All math and no optical. That’s how the Red Sox picked-up the contracts of Pablo and Hanley. Go Fangraphs!! Have you watched ANY games this year? Wow!!

You do realize that Fangraphs fabricates their numbers from estimates? An error is an error no matter what park you are in, no matter how many feet you traveled to not catch the ball. You get that right? Interpretting stats includes understanding how much of a stat has been convoluted by averaging. That’s why we have a whole new generation of stat-based baseball fans who have NO IDEA of what they are saying when they quote some of the sabremetric information.

Everyone has the right to express their opinion based on the facts they perceive to exist but I challenge you to watch Devers play daily and watch Andujar play daily and then explain to me why Devers is better despite missing more grounders than Andujar. Then, go back and count the number of infield hits to 3B for both teams. How many times has Andujar gotten a slow jump on a topped ball then charged it slower than Devers and mis-handled the bare-handed pick-up? I watch all the Red Sox games and at least a half dozen times the momentum of a game changed when Devers mis-handled a mis-hit ball. Heck, he cost Sale a no-hitter this past start!! He can’t play third and if StatCast or Fangraphs disagrees because they took averages of averages and came up with a discreet math rating for him that says differently, I’m ok with that!!

6shuter – Thanks for the link to Fangraphs. I used it and I’m laughing about you loving all the idiot comments that Devers is the worst in baseball. If you go to the ‘standard’ tab and check the ranking he is only ahead of Bregman.and Bregman has a fielding percentage 17 points higher!! Do you even know what all the columns on the Advanced tab mean? Did you look at the Inside Edge Fielding where they break down somebody’s subjective opinion on how hard a play is and rank them by percentile chance of making the play? Devers is consistently at the bottom of most of the percentage categories. Ironic that when you look at the 0% to 10% column only four guys have made such a difficult play this year, Chapman leads at 18.8 percent of the time he’s made it, Arenado is second at 13.3, Bregman is 3rd at 6.7% (despite being ranked on the standard page as last) and Moustakas at 6.3%. No other player has fielded a ball at this difficulty level and been successful. Guess who has had the most opportunities and has 0? Yep, Devers. 18 times he’s had a chance to make a great play and failed. All four who have positive numbers in this difficult category had 15 or 16 chances some other excellent 3Bs have had many less chances so it’s not as big an indictment to their skill as the guy who once again is the worst in baseball at fielding 3B.

Your response was so typical of guys who try to pretend that they have a strong background in Sabermetric information. So are those thinking Devers is bad the idiots? Or is the guy who references a site then doesn’t even know what the site is saying really not qualified to judge others? I’ll let you decide.

6shuter you are wasting your time talking to KD he has it in his head that Devers is terrible, he is wrong of course, but you will not be able to convince him. Oh and KD I watch all the Red Sox games too and No Devers didn’t cost Sale a no hitter it was a clean hit between the shortstop and third base unless you are going to blame Devers where he was playing. Your hating on Devers is getting old. Someone last year was hating on 10d just like you are hating on Devers I told them the same thing I’m telling you the talent is there he is 21 years old and will be just fine.

Bruin012 – Whine about me all you want but there is not truth to me hating Devers. I’m a Red Sox fan and I root for him to do well. He simply hasn’t done well so far this year. He’s not hitting well, he’s not fielding well, he’s not running the bases well as we saw tonight and he’s not improving as the season progresses. How many games do you need to see before enough is enough? He has the highest number of errors at 3B in baseball and a .230 batting average? I’m not making that up.

I would be incredibly happy if he suddenly starting catching the balls that he should and throwing accurately to 1B because it would help the Sox win. I would be incredibly happy if he stopped swinging at pitches out of the zone and striking out with guys in scoring position. I would be happy if he knew which base to throw to prior to the ball being hit. All these things would make me happy like any Red Sox fan. I don’t hate Devers, I am simply pointing out that he’s not cutting it and we should move to the next candidate to play third and either send him down to improve or ship him out in a deal to get a 3B that will add more value to the Red Sox.

Stop making things personal. I don’t hate you because you don’t agree with me. Objective evaluation should be a good thing. It may anger folks who want to paint things rosier than they are but I am not making up his numbers. They are there for all to view. Your conclusion is simply different from mine and if you want to dismiss mine because they don’t match yours that’s fine with me just don’t try to hide the facts by suggesting I have a prejudice against him. I don’t hate him, he’s a Red Sox player and I am a fan..

Please take Julio Iglesias back. Great great glove but frustrating to watch hitting. At least he is the hardest to strike out. All we need is a long range 18 year or two that Dave D doesn’t like anyway. He will not be GM by the time these guys are 24-26 so send them over! Detroit Tigers